


The Time of Year to Be with the One that You Love

by phoenix_writing



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:14:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21878716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenix_writing/pseuds/phoenix_writing
Summary: Ron decides to crash Christmas morning and drag Hermione off to surprise Harry, not realising that he is the one in for a surprise.  Hermione/Severus and Harry/Draco.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 4
Kudos: 154





	The Time of Year to Be with the One that You Love

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Christmas carol “Bells will Be Ringing”. Story is not epilogue compliant. (Pretend it was a dream!) Severus isn’t as dead as Harry thought he was, and everything else should mostly make sense. I’ve not read Cursed Child, so none of that is canon here.

~*~

Severus couldn’t believe how much had changed since the death of Voldemort. In the first place, he’d never expected to live this long. And yet here he was. Here they _both_ were, and that was on a whole other level of unexpected.

Hermione was curled up against his side on the couch. They were reading—books that they had given one another that morning for Christmas. They’d gone to dinner on Christmas Eve with Hermione’s parents, a meal that had gone remarkably well, under the circumstances, but was nevertheless not an experience that Severus wanted to repeat unnecessarily, and now they had the entirety of Christmas day to themselves. There was nothing that had to be done, no lingering threat of a Summons, nor of a disaster in the Slytherin common room, nor even of a sudden urgent task from Dumbledore. Not only was Severus’s time his own, he was … happy? It was a curious sensation.

Someone began to pound on their door with an obnoxiously loud banging.

Severus suppressed a sigh. Clearly, he’d tempted fate.

Hermione uncurled herself, patted his arm like she could hear his internal grumbling, and rose to answer the door. Statistically, it was far more likely to be for her than for him, and the chances of anyone landing in Azkaban were greatly reduced if she was the one to deal with whoever was disturbing their quiet Christmas.

His sigh was more audible when he saw the red hair, but it was lost in the general chaos of Hermione greeting Ron Weasley, Weasley pulling her into a giant hug, and Hermione thumping him on the back to get him to release her. (Also lost in the chaos was Severus’s move for his wand, but Weasley released Hermione, and Hermione shot Severus a look before she turned back to the redhead.)

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “I thought you weren’t back until the new year.”

“Finished up early. Simmons took a bludger to the head, and Perkins and Aberwitch both contracted Dragon Pox. Coach agreed it only made sense to reconvene in the new year. So I thought we could go and get Harry.”

“Severus and I are spending Christmas together,” Hermione told him.

The youngest male Weasley still had trouble looking Severus in the eye—which didn’t bother Severus, as he was happy to see the man squirm.

“Oh, uh, that’s nice,” Weasley said, turning an alarming shade of red and sounding completely insincere. “But we can’t abandon Harry for Christmas!”

“Far be it for me to stand in Mr. Potter’s way,” Severus drawled sardonically, no bothering to stand up.

Hermione shot him another look. To Weasley, she said, “No one is abandoning Harry.”

“He should be with my family right now!” Weasley said stubbornly. “It’s like he’s been cast out!”

“He _chose_ not to go this year,” Hermione correctly sternly. “He thought it would be awkward enough for Felix having Ginny’s ex there, let alone an ex who’s Harry Potter. I thought it was very _sensitive_ of him.”

The point seemed to wing right over Weasley’s head.

“That’s why we have to go get him!”

Hermione huffed a breath. “He’s made other plans, Ron. I did offer to spend the day with him, you know.”

Weasley very obviously did not look at Severus. “But there are reasons why he mightn’t have wanted to do that.”

Hermione’s lips tightened in a way that Severus knew did not bode well. Apparently, so did Weasley.

“If you don’t want to come, I’ll go myself,” Weasley blustered. “I just thought it was a time for people we care about, that’s all.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, I’ll come.” She looked at Severus, her gaze intense. “I’m sorry about this. Can I get a raincheck?”

“Of course,” he agreed, wondering what warranted that level of focus but relieved that Hermione wasn’t trying to make him go as well.

She crossed to his side to lean down and give him a soft kiss and push the thought she wanted at him.

With a wave of her wand, Hermione was dressed for the outdoors, had looped her arm through the trying-not-to-gawk-and-failing-miserably Weasley, and tugged him out the door after her.

Severus was left sitting there wondering why on earth would Potter need a _warning_ that she and Weasley were coming.

~*~

“Harry.”

Harry squirmed closer to the warm weight beneath him.

“Harry.”

“Five more minutes,” he mumbled.

“Potter!”

Harry shot upright, wand in his hand even as he recognized that no, Snape was not in his bedroom but yes, his Patronus was. Draco sat up more slowly, only his wide eyes showing his alarm at the glowing doe at the foot of the bed.

Snape’s voice issued once more from the Patronus.

“I cannot begin to imagine why it is necessary, but Hermione requested that you be informed that she and Weasley are on their way to forcibly join you for Christmas. Consider yourself warned.”

The doe faded away, and Harry just stared at where it had been for a moment, stunned. And then the import of what Snape had actually _said_ made itself known to his sleep-addled brain, and Harry catapulted out of the bed.

“Ron and Hermione’ll be here any minute! Oh, this is the worst! They can’t see—”

Cursing as he went, Harry flung himself into the bathroom, relieved himself, muttered a tooth-cleaning charm (Hermione would be so disappointed) as he tried to smooth his hair into some semblance of order, and stumbled back into the bedroom as his underwear, trousers, and a t-shirt all tried to slide onto his body at the same time.

Draco was standing on the other side of the bed, fully dressed and without a hair out of place, looking the consummate Malfoy. Was it a special set of grooming spells? Were they passed down Malfoy to Malfoy through each generation?

“I’d better be going,” Draco said coolly.

Harry, who’d been hopping on one foot trying to get a sock on, wobbled dangerously and abruptly put his foot down.

“Oh. I thought we—” He cut himself off, made himself smile, though it felt a little forced. “Of course. I know you didn’t sign up for the Christmas invasion.”

Draco’s eyes narrowed, and he stared at Harry intently.

“Potter,” he said finally, and Harry stiffened, because Draco didn’t call him “Potter” anymore unless he was annoyed. “You are scrambling to hide that I was ever here before your friends arrive.”

Harry’s eyes widened. “Oh! No! I just—I just wanted us to be decent when Ron got here.” Self-consciously, he admitted, “I, uh, I’d really like it if you stayed. I mean, it might be horrible, but, uh, it would be nice if you were here.”

Draco continued to stare at Harry for long enough that he worried he’d just ruined everything, but then the blond relaxed visibly, his lip curling up in amusement.

“It might be horrible? You really know how to sell things, Harry.”

Harry nearly melted in relief. “Well, I don’t want you to have unrealistic expectations.”

“My expectations are generally that my plans will be ruined when it comes to you, Harry,” Draco said ruefully.

“So we’ll build better plans together,” Harry said hopefully.

Draco slipped around the bed and came to give Harry a soft kiss on the lips.

“Yeah. Let’s go brave the horror that is your best friend.”

Harry laughed and poked Draco in the ribs. “I didn’t say _that_.”

Draco raised an eyebrow. “I distinctly recall you mentioning _Ron_ and _horrible_ in the same sentence.”

“I did not,” Harry protesting, still grinning.

There was a loud knock on the door. Harry sighed.

“Ready?” he asked.

“I was born ready, Potter,” Malfoy said.

Harry snorted and went to answer the door, buoyed by the humour and the sudden belief that whatever happened in the next few minutes, they were going to figure it out together.

~*~

_Finite incantatem_


End file.
